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For too long now, we’ve waited for an answer while the Wilkie rotted and fell apart.
Yet, two steamboats have apparently taught the city nothing because it opted to keep a base on the levee, just in case we want to build — get ready for this — another steamboat.
Let’s put this in terms even some of our more dense public officials can understand: Get over the steamboats.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. We appear to be dabbling in insanity as we look forward to another replica, another taxpayer supported boondoggle.
We can’t simultaneously prepare for a new future while keeping the relics of the past. What’s more, it gives false hope to those who want another steamboat to replace this dilapidated wreck. It would be ironic if it wasn’t so sad that the same people who feel warm and nostalgic for the steamboats of yesteryear refuse to take a cursory glance at history. That history would tell them that a steamboat attraction, while novel, doesn’t bring in the kind of tourists that drive the economy or even maintain a structure.
Dream a new dream; envision a new vision.
What the city of Winona has before it is nothing short of a remarkable opportunity, afforded to us by our unique location on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River.
We have the opportunity to re-evaluate our relationship with the river. What about something that enhances the beauty of the city and the river, like parkland? What about a different type of
center dedicated to some-thing else besides steam-boats — about something
dedicated to the natural history of the blufflands, or about the critters and creatures that share this space with us?
The problem remains that as long as we have a base designed for steamboats and as long as we continue to talk about steamboats, all people will be able to think of is steamboats. Steamboats were an important and nostalgic part of our rivertown history, but they weren’t the only thing. More importantly, they remain a thing of the past.
But what about the future?
At the present, we are at least past the last grand battle of the Wilkie. The battle has been long and drawn out, and members of the group that tried saving it deserved an answer. They also deserve admiration for fighting for what they believe in.
We hope the city council has the moxie it will take to envision something new. Maybe even worse than a crumbling steamboat on the levee would be a large concrete pad. In taking a politically convenient route, our elected leaders have left us with the worst possible scenario: a concrete pad to welcome visitors and the hope of revitalizing an idea history has clearly rejected. Twice.
What Winona had and continues to have is potential that other cities would kill for.
Instead, we’ve made the least of a good situation.
By Darrell Ehrlick, editor, on behalf of the Winona Daily News editorial board, which also includes publisher Rusty Cunningham. To comment, call 453-3507 or send e-mail to letters@winonadailynews.com.
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